I could have been rich! Biggest financial mistakes

Well the devil is in the details

maybe the multi millionaire was brilliant at construction and could get us off the island!

I'm more annoyed about slacking off the gym in my mid 20s tbh. At 30ish and a few years back in the gym I've got a 170kg deadlift which is pretty damn good for a woman. I reckon I could've set some serious numbers had I kept at it consistently. Possibly gone professional.

Obv having more money is always good but for me there's a point at which I don't want to sacrifice any more of my life. A lot of my friends don't have this mentality and have this weird 'my work is my validation' mindset that a lot of women have nowadays. I couldn't be unhealthy because of my job or be sat in a chair for the majority of my waking existence until I'm a pensioner, no matter how much money I had.

I agree so strongly with this. Had coffee with a friend today who was fretting about not earning much, her DH earns a fortune. I pointed out it is a sickness in our society to judge success according to earnings. Who would you rather be shipwrecked on a desert island with - a multimillionaire or a nurse?

But you don't regret the kids so doesn't really fit the scenario. I thought heavily about abusing bitcoin when it came out and then got distracted and forgot all about it. I hugely regret this now (obviously).

The life insurance situation is tough, I would be pretty annoyed about that if it left me in dire straights but sounds like you were okay (financially speaking). I am very sorry to hear of your loss though.

The only thing I regret is having a lot of debt in my 30s. Much of it was because my partner didn't work and I wanted us to have holidays etc. that we couldn't really afford. It was stupid and should have gone into a pension. It was a massive struggle to pay it all back after we split up but I did and am in a very lucky position now, but it's not about the money so much as the stress of having so much debt. Even though I'm comfortable now thinking of those years gives me a shiver!

In house is generally regarded as having a good life work balance

My OH didn’t put a substantial amount on Jenson Button to win the 2009 drivers championship when he was 1000-1. Even though he was convinced after testing he’d win it. He still goes on about it. That and not buying gold.

Yeah, but as an industry it's pretty terrible for work/life balance on the whole. I used to be a bid manager for a medium sized city firm.

Not me, but someone I know, was offered a place in a pop group and a first song. The song is a perpetual party hit.

I was too busy playing with play doh and barbies in the 90s when I should have been buying property.... what an error.

Yup, my partner used to have 50 I think, we used them all when times were lean.

Yea, I decided to start my own business. It was a lot of stress, no thanks and poor returns. So I closed it down, returned to my supermarket job, poorer but wiser. We have a good laugh at work.

I deeply regret buggering about with my mortgage. House went up steadily in value and I kept remortgaging for daft stuff like holidays etc. If I’d left it alone I’d have been mortgage free 6 years ago. As it stands I’ve still got 5 years left. 🙄

You could literally apply this to most situations though. If I hadn’t had kids i would have had at least £100k saved as I was putting away £500 per month. BUT I wouldn’t have had my cuties who are now teens and I get more pleasure out of them than any amt of money.

My husband didn’t have life insurance when he died!!!! Am I bitter a little if I think about it, BUT It is what it is and as a fiercely independent wife I never wanted him to pay for me anyway 🫣.

Where did you buy in the end?

Well I'd have been rich from bitcoin cos I wouldn't have looked at it until I read it hit £13.5k each because I spent most of that period of timing building my business and looking after my ill husband. I'd have had £105m of bitcoin at that stage. We decided against investing for one reason - who would be using an unregulated currency? And we thought of criminals snd the dark Web. How pious were we?! All currencies are used by criminals.

Tbh a big slug of money then, just after my DH had died would not have been good for us as a family, we were in turmoil.

I'd take it now though, lol!

I bumped into a colleague the other day and asked about my old workplace. They left a few months after I did with a redundancy package!!!! I had to give myself a talking to, I left at the time for a ton of reasons and wouldn’t really have stuck it out ….

I can beat that, I nearly bought in East London, near Victoria park in the late 90’s. My idiot ex husband wouldn’t live in East and we fannied around looking at West which we couldn’t afford. I’d be sat on a £1.5 million property and got divorced 3 years later. I do have a property so realise I am luckier than many, but it’s very modest and had to give my career, mainly for caring responsibilities so will have to work way beyond what I expected to several decades ago.
Late ND diagnosed and menopausal so try to cut myself a bit of slack and not think about it too much!

I bought a horse 😣, hate to think how much he’s cost me in livery, food, shoes, rugs and vet bills over the past 8 years. I’d have a very nice car with the money, but my life is much richer and I love him to bits 🥰

I can vividly remember a guy telling me and some friends to invest in bitcoin about 12 years ago. We rolled our eyes at him but even if we have bought £100 then on my god! Would be SO much money

I don’t think you were wrong

That £295k property in 1999 would have been the equivalent of you buying a £700K plus property

I understand the impact of inflation @Chillithai, but the whole proposal DH put forward was based on not handing over £12k a year to the Rail Company, but rather investing it in a property that would give us a much better work / life balance.

No matter which way I replay it, I think he was right and I was wrong !!

It would have been like you buying a flat for >£700k

£295k in 1999 was a huge amount of money for a flat in the only developing docklands

@Tatwrap

1999

The flat then was priced at £295k, it sold in 2024 for £925k.

The idea was to use the season ticket money to buy it and live there during the week, in order to achieve more work / life balance. We both loathed our hideous daily commute.

I vehemently disagreed with the idea because I knew the developments on Docklands had a difficult period in the early 90’s and I was dubious about how many developers were throwing cash incentives at potential buyers in 1998/99

I got it terribly wrong and wish he was still here to gloat about my stupid decision.